Pointless Doomsday Device: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|Self destruct lever. A mechanism that, for example, could [[Kill It with Fire|flood your fort with magma]], or release a trapped [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|megabeast]]. For bonus points, [[No OSHA Compliance|build the whole fort on a single support]].
'''Difficulty''': [[Captain Obvious|Very high. Extremely dangerous.]]
'''Usefulness''': None, by definition, but [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|highly]] [[For the Evulz|amusing]].
|'''[[Dwarf Fortress]] [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Stupid_dwarf_trick Wiki]'''}}
[[The Time of Myths]] was a dangerous age to live in, with [[Eldritch Abomination]]s on the loose, [[God of Evil|evil gods]] eating souls and whatnot. So it's not surprising that after becoming [[Sufficiently Advanced]], the [[Precursors]] made superweapons to defend themselves and make the galaxy or planet a safer place for their descendants. [[Benevolent Precursors|Conscientious precursors]] will dismantle or at least disable these weapons while [[Fling a Light Into the Future|preserving them for later use]]—usually by scattering the component [[MacGuffin|Mac Guffins]] across the cosmos or placing some kind of condition for activation (say [[Virgin Power]], or innocence).
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Not to be confused with the "plain" [[Doomsday Device]].
{{examples|Examples: }}▼
== [[Anime]]
* In ''[[Slayers]]'', the elves created a powerful weapon that is immune to all magical attacks. It could also spit out smaller duplicates. Unfortunately {{spoiler|since the artifact is immune to all magic, it cannot be controlled. So, the elves just buried it and
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The [[Marvel Universe|Ultimate Nullifier]] is a device that can disintegrate anything (and sometimes more than that, depending on the continuity)--up to and including the entire universe. It's been used to stand off Galactus, but it's not at all clear why the thing exists in the first place, or why it's kept in Galactus' starbase.
** Eventually, the device was indeed given an origin, making it somewhat of a subversion. Long before the Watchers adopted their [[Alien Non-Interference Clause]], they decided to share their advanced technology with a race called the v - who it turmed out, could not be trusted with it. The Prosilicans formed a glactic empire intent on conquest and subjugation, becoming overwhelmingly powerful, until a Watcher named Emnu (who had objected to the initial plan from the start) invented the Nullifer and used it to destroy them - also obliterating himself and 90% of the population of the universe. Horrified at what had happened and accepting full responsibility for it, the remaining Watchers swore never to interfere with other races again, establishing their vow of non-interference that they (mostly) follow to this day.
== [[Film]] ==
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* The Alpha-Omega Bomb from ''Beneath the [[Planet of the Apes]]'', capable of [[Earthshattering Kaboom|incinerating Earth's atmosphere]], was built only as a deterrent. Too bad a millennium later it would be [[Cargo Cult|the god of a mutant group]]... {{spoiler|and actually be used!}}
== [[Live
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has multiple doomsday devices, spells and other various things.
* In the ''[[Stargate]]'' setting, the Ancients seemed to make a hobby of building these. Prominent examples include:
** the Dakara Superweapon: capable of selectively disintegrating throughout the entire galaxy a particular species of life or all life in general, depending on how you set its incomprehensible but easily-used controls. Originally built to stop a plague.
** the San Graal: capable of destroying all Ascended beings in a galaxy - granted, this one was actually intended to be a weapon, and deliberately hidden behind puzzles.
*** Actually, it was instructions to MAKE the San Graal, and the good guys were given some assistance to find it, so this may be more of a
** the Asuran Replicators: a form of machine life built as a weapon to destroy the Wraith but then abandoned to its own devices when it proved to be a "failure" in some undefined way. The Ancients at least did try to destroy it, but of course didn't do a particularly thorough job.
*** Actually they did do a pretty thorough job, unfortunately out of the uncountable trillions of nanobots that make the Asuran Replicators they missed a couple, which was all that was needed to rebuild themselves.
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*** After the original blew up, the Atlantis crew revisited the concept, and this time almost managed to destroy a parallel universe. Apparently they were fast learners.
** The device that gives anyone exposed to it exploding tumors. [[Discontinuity|If such a thing existed.]]
** The Ancients were losing the war against the Wraiths and were desperate for any weapon that could turn the tide. However, as the Wraith attacked Ancient worlds, the Ancients had to abandon most of the research and prototypes. Since they were convinced that they would eventually win and reclaim all that they lost, they did not bother destroying or neutralizing all those [[Doomsday Device
** A weapon used for destroying Stargates. There is no other conceivable use for the device, since it is stationary, and the beam it projects is specifically tuned to [[Overclocking Attack|detonate the gate]] on the other end of the wormhole. Bear in mind that Stargates targeted with this weapon explode with enough force to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy an entire planet]]. Truly, the [[Neglectful Precursors|Ancients]] were paragons of morality and pacifism.
*** The Altero device, which was specifically tuned to Wraith hyperdrives to cause them to blow up during a jump throughout the galaxy. Unfortunately, it had the nasty side effect of causing every active stargate to explode in a [[Earthshattering Kaboom|planet-busting]] manner. Whoops! To their credit, they have actually hidden the lab fairly well.
** Once the Ancients ascended they stopped caring about all the deadly technology they left behind and regarded any attempts to fix this as forbidden interference with non-ascended beings.
* The planet-eating "doomsday machine" that appears in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' seems to be one of these. Kirk can only guess as to where it may have come from or why it was activated, but he still has to stop it before it destroys anything else.
** His guess is that it was built for an ancient war that neither side survived after it was activated. If true the trope wouldn't apply, since it wasn't forgotten so much as it just kind of wandered off
*** [[Peter David]]'s ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation
== [[Literature]] ==
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Professor Farnsworth has a collection of doomsday weapons, just sitting in storage. Even after using one for good in "Time Keeps On Slippin'", he claims to still have enough left over to destroy the world.
* ''[[The Flintstones]]''; the reason the Great Gazoo was exiled was because he built a device that could have obliterated the entire universe with the push of a button. He swears he never intended to use it, claiming, "I only wanted to be the first on my block to have one!"
{{reflist}}
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